We live in the brightest and brightest time of spring and summer. The Finns have woken up from their own holes after the winter. There is joy and anticipation of summer in the air, nature is blooming. Another exceptional winter and spring is already behind us. Life is opening up. However, caution can be felt. But there is hope for normalization.
I have received Aurala's new strategy to read and reflect on. We have discussed the strategy at the Aurala board meeting. I look forward to Aurala's strategy like a new summer. The employees have been working on and refining the strategy for over a year and the result of the process is great!
I have been on the board of Aurala and in the steering group of the PETU project for a few years. Close to my heart is especially the work that is done with people who have come to Finland from elsewhere.
I have been able to work with immigrants while working at Turku Christian College as a psychologist in student care. I especially met those who had come as asylum seekers from very difficult conditions, for example from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Somalia and Congo.
In 2015, a family friend of mine went to meet asylum seekers at the camp center of Turku parishes. The parents had informed the children that we were going to meet asylum seekers. The visit went smoothly and happily. On the way back in the car, the children asked: "Where were the asylum seekers? We only saw people."
The starting point in Aurala's strategy is always people. Whoever he is, neither nationality, nor ethnic background, nor political position, nor religion matters. There is only a person in the center.
Aurala's strategy emphasizes sensitivity to hearing, listening to people and their needs in all activities; with a sensitive ear. So easily we ignore, pass by or pursue our own agenda.
The strategy contains the values, principles and vision that we need in all our everyday lives in order to live as human beings. Courage, the courage to try, anticipate, react and innovate requires a lot - it would be easier to stay with the old and go with the flow. Sometimes it can be scary because these principles require changing your own ossified attitudes.
Courage does not mean not being afraid. It means doing what needs to be done, even if you are afraid. It's good to remember that a little bit of love and acceptance is more important than a bag of evil. It is important to be on the side of good and not against any person.
Aurala's strategy challenges us to stay in the state of will represented by all the different areas of the strategy. They are inalienable in all activities.
I think that if this world acted according to Aurala's values, wars would end. People would hear and listen to each other with a sensitive ear. People would respect each other and be ready to meet different people in their own culture and be open to people who have moved from other places. There would probably always be conflicts, but if we learned to listen to ourselves and each other with respect, the conflicts could be resolved by talking.
The words of an unknown thinker, which I have shared these last few days with new students as a way to live, are also suitable as the starting point for Aurala's activities. These thoughts have the same echo as Aurala's strategy. They are suitable as a snack for life, no matter where we are in our life cycle:
"There are a hundred doors, a thousand roads ahead.
Choose with your heart, weigh with your feeling,
use some common sense.
Doors are made to be opened, roads to be trodden on,
life to live.
If you're wrong, dare to cry.
Nothing grows without water, man does not mature without tears.
But still expect the best and don't fear the worst.
That's how you get what your heart desires."
Eeva-Kaija Lemmetyinen,
the author, is a psychologist and a member of Aurala's board of directors
